Brain and Stress Study (BASS)

University of North Carolina (UNC)

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 4

Conditions: Motivation; Stress, Psychological

Treatments: Drug: Placebo; Drug: Minocycline

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06044090

21-3111

Details and patient eligibility

About

Motivational deficits such as anhedonia are core to several psychiatric disorders and underlie significant functional impairment. This double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial of minocycline, an anti-[neuro]inflammatory agent, examines links between chronic stress and responses to a reward-related motivation task. It will evaluate the effects of pharmacologically attenuating neuroinflammation on behavioral responses to a reward-related motivation task in individuals experiencing unemployment. Understanding the effects of neuroinflammation on reward function among individuals experiencing chronic stress represents a critical first step in identifying novel neuroimmune targets for future clinical trials.

Full description

This study seeks to conduct translational work that extends rich preclinical findings to the clinical domain to validate whether neuroinflammatory dysregulation is strongly tied to anhedonia. This project addresses critical gaps in the scientific literature by recruiting a chronically stressed sample of individuals-employment seeking individuals who report significant stress-- and will use an experimental therapeutics approach to attenuate neuroinflammation and assess behavioral changes in motivation.

One major obstacle in understanding how neuroinflammation influences motivation involves technological challenges such that conventional approaches are invasive, expensive, and/or lacking specificity. Although static levels of neuroinflammation in humans have been measured via cross sectional studies, capturing behavioral shifts following experimental manipulation has not been done. This gap limits the ability to develop a more precise understanding of how neuroinflammation causes motivational deficits in humans. The proposed project will employ a mechanistic clinical trial of the anti-[neuro]inflammatory agent, minocycline, to address these limitations. In animal models, minocycline has attenuated the deleterious effects of neuroinflammation on neurogenesis, long-term potentiation, and neuronal survival. This study will extend research to humans to examine whether links between neuroinflammation and behavioral responses to a reward-related motivation task differ among chronically stressed individuals taking minocycline and the placebo control. The proposed project will provide preliminary evidence for potential neural targets that have relevance for motivational deficits due to neuroinflammation.

Once screening is complete, participants will come to UNC to complete quality-of-life surveys, learn about the full study schedule, and receive the first dose of medication. This visit will last about 90 minutes. Participants will be asked to participate in two medication periods, meaning they will take both minocycline (antibiotic medication) for 5-days, and an inactive substance (placebo sugar pill) for 5-days. This will investigate whether there are changes in their responses to negative and positive information. After taking the first medication for five days, participants will come in to complete a computer task (Probabilistic Reward Task) and some follow-up surveys (Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale and Motivation and Pleasure Scale). This visit will last about 90 minutes. Participants will then get at least a 2-week break before taking the second medication for five days. Then, they will come back for another 90-minute visit to complete the same computer task and follow-up surveys. The total study duration including the break is about one month. The total time in study sessions on campus over the month will be 4.5 hours.

Enrollment: 10 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 25 to 60 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 25-60 years old
• Unemployed (working less than 20 hours per week)
• Have been unemployed for at least 6 months
• Seeking employment
• Having trouble finding a job (i.e., actively seeking and applying for jobs but not successful in landing a job)
• Reports greater than 5 points on Job Stress Items
• Regular access to a mobile phone

Exclusion criteria

• Self-reported physical illnesses: diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, inflammatory bowel diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, autoimmune disease, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, lupus
• neurological conditions (e.g., Traumatic Brain Injury, stroke)
• pregnant (as measured by urine pregnancy screen) or breastfeeding
• current use of psychotropic medications
• Current regular recreational drug or alcohol use (i.e., 4 or more times per week)
• chronic diseases that significantly impact inflammatory markers (e.g., cancer)
• known allergies or hypersensitivities to tetracycline antibiotics, aspirin or other NSAIDs
• current antibiotic use
• regular use of steroidal or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (i.e., 2 or more times a week)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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10 participants in 2 patient groups

Placebo followed by Minocycline

Experimental group

Description:

In this arm, participants will take a 5-day course of placebo-control pills and then a 5-day course of 200 mg of minocycline. Sessions will be separated by a minimum washout period of 14 days.

Treatment:

Drug: Minocycline

Drug: Placebo

Minocycline followed by Placebo

Experimental group

Description:

In this arm, participants will take a 5-day course of 200 mg of minocycline and then a 5-day course of placebo-control pills. Sessions will be separated by a minimum washout period of 14 days.

Treatment:

Drug: Minocycline

Drug: Placebo